Manaless

"Arthur! Wake up, the boss is coming!"

I was stirred awake by someone shaking me. Thinking it might be my brother, I opened my eyes, only to see an older man I didn't recognize.

"I-Who are you?!"

I tried to get away from his grasp, but fell over because of my struggle.

"Arthur, being a bother again I see. I think this makes this conversation easier to understand."

While I was on the ground, I looked up and saw a fat man in a suit coming into the room I was in. He was balding, and he was looking at everyone with a look of disdain.

"You're fired, Arthur. You're just such a detriment to have around. If it weren't for your late father, I would have never hired you, but enough is enough. Don't come back anymore."

With that, the fat man turned and left. I was so confused by the events that happened in less than a minute. 

I continued to look around, trying to figure out what was going on, when I grabbed my head in pain.

A splitting headache came out of nowhere, and I felt as if my head was being mixed by a blender then crushed with a hammer.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

I screamed before blacking out entirely.

****

Arthur Creed, an 18 year old man, who lived in the world of Earth where science was the basis of everything.

Then there was...

Arthur Creed, an 18 year old man... Who lived in a world of magic.

When I first transmigrated to this world, I was at the workplace of the original Arthur, but the forceful implanting of his memories caused me to collapse onto the ground. When I woke up in the hospital, I remembered everything. 

His life was very different than mine. His father had been recruited as a mage in an everlasting war with demons, and subsequently died during battle. 

Leaving a single mother to raise two boys. In my original world, while still hard, it was much more doable with the assistance of the government. This world was much more cruel. Even after my father died for humanity, because his level was low, his family was not given much money as compensation. Essentially..

They felt his life was only worth so much.

His mother in this world worked two jobs, sometimes three, just to provide for the three of them. This was all due to his mother having very weak magic. Only being able to cast cleaning magic, and even that took too much mana for her to continuously cast. This meant she got less work done than others who had larger mana pools.

Everything in this world was determined by your magical talent. Arthur was even worse than his mother. He had no magical talent at all. He would never be able to rise in level.

Level. That was also something unique to this world. The concept of levels was prevalent, and then there were classes which would determine your role in fights. However it all came down to your magic talent in the end. Even tanks needed magic to use their defensive spells, but when I came to this world I found out I had a lifeline.

Well, two to be exact. First was that I could view my status screen without the use of a magical artifact. Most people would have to go to a mage tower to get their status screen revealed through a device, but I could do it from anywhere anytime.

Second, was that while I still had no mana stat, I had something to make up for it.

[Name: Arthur Creed]

[Class: Psychic]

[HP: 100/100]

[SP: 200/200]

[Stats]

Strength: 10

Agility: 10

Spirit: 10

Will: 10

[Talents]

Supernatural Gift (SSS-Rank)

[Skills]

Telepathy (Level 1)

////

My stats were all at the base level, as everyone starts off with them at 10, the only exceptions being people who had Talents that gave them boosts.

Talents were similar to innate advantages, different from person to person. While the rank of your talent determined how powerful it would be. However some talents were common, and many people had them. To explain better, there was the Talent: Swift. Now many people could have them, but someone could have a S-Rank Swift talent, which was much stronger than someone who had the F-Rank version of the talent. The difference was not only in the strength of the skill, but also the utilization.

The S-Rank talent could share their Swift talent, with their party members, but an F-Rank could not.

Anyways, I also knew that my Talent was completely unique, as the supernatural didn't exist in this world. There were not ghosts, or psychic abilities, but I had them. Due to my talent, which I had gotten only after I had transmigrated to this world.

Then there was the final difference:

I had Spiritual Power instead of Mana Points. I read the description of the stat, and essentially it was my mental strength. Since that was what psychic powers used instead of mana. For now my only skill was Telepathy. For now I was only able to vaguely read minds. I was able to sense intent, but that was crude at best. It was more like an instinct feeling that someone is going to do something. 

I couldn't fully read minds yet, however the skill was only at Level 1. Skills could be leveled up with use, or deeper understanding, and become more powerful as a result. Skills were usually gained with every level up, so I would have to level up to see if that was still the case for me. 

Anyways, I spent the past few hours organizing all these memories, while still being in the hospital room. The doctors had come and examined me, deciding there was nothing wrong with me, and that I most likely suffered a mental breakdown from being fired.

I didn't argue, since it was a simpler excuse than telling them I transmigrated, and I didn't want to go through more headache. I was mostly worried about the bill. It was not much but since my family didn't have much money to spare, it would be a problem.

I was soon released, and after signing the release form I took the receipt home. I walked, but I lived very far from the hospital. We lived in the slums of the city, so I had a far walk. I followed my past memories, and after a couple hours I finally arrived home.

It was a shabby little apartment, that had water damage and visible signs of mold on the ceiling. When I walked in, my mother who heard my footsteps rushed out from her bedroom.

"Arthur! I was so worried when the hospital called, are you okay?"

She then began to hold my head and inspect my face for any trauma. I smiled and gently grabbed my mother's hands. While this wasn't the same woman from my original world, she was still just as loving and thoughtful as my mother.

"I'm fine mother. Thankfully it was just a mental breakdown... But I lost my job today. I'll go out tomorrow, and look for more work. I even awakened a new talent today that will help me in the future."

*Gasp*

"You awakened a new talent?! That's so wonderful! I'm so happy for you Arthur! Your father.. He would be so proud of how hard you work. It feels like your hard work might be paying off, no?"

She then smiled and led me into the living room where my brother was already sitting. My brother was already eating, and he had an unhappy look on his face. I used twenty SP to activate my telepathy, and I knew that he didn't like me. I had some memories of arguments, but my past self thought he was just taking his anger out on the wrong people.

No. My brother, before me, didn't like me. Which bothered me, since on my Earth my brother and I had a great relationship. We would go out often together, and I would help him with his schoolwork. We shared our feelings with each other, and had a lot of good memories.

However in this world, it seems that my brother blamed my poor magical talent for part of our financial hardships. I smiled bitterly when I saw his look of hidden disdain, but I moved past it. Instead I quietly sat down, and let my mother continue to load my plate with food.

"Ugh. Gets fired, goes to the hospital for no reason, and now you're loading his plate with food. This useless older brother? I'm going to my room. Don't bother me."

With that the 15 year old boy walked into his room, and slammed the door. I quietly looked at the door, thinking of how to mend this relationship, when I noticed my mother's hands shaking. 

I placed my hand gently on hers, and looked her in the eyes.

"I promise you mother, that I will turn our situation around with my talent. Believe in me this time."

My mother couldn't hold back her emotions and broke down while hugging me. I simply let her hold me, and I gently patted her back. After a while, I felt her body start to lose it's strength, and I helped her to her room.

She tried telling me not to worry about cleaning the dishes from dinner, but I told her I can do at least that much.

"Such a good son... I hope your talent has the strength to change your life... I just want you to be happy."

...

"It has the strength to change all of our lives... And I will make it change for the better. Goodnight."

"Good night. I love you son."

"I love you too, mom."

I then gently closed the door and began to clean up the dishes. It didn't take long, and during the time it took to wash them, I had come up with a plan to make some quick money.

I looked at the my checking book, and I would only have a few thousand to work with. This money was supposed to be for our rent, so I could not afford to fail with this idea.

Feeling the pressure weigh on my shoulders, I quickly finished up and went to bed. Tomorrow would be the day my destiny begins to turn around.

****

When I woke up, my brother and mother had already left for the day. My mother had left a small bowl of rice porridge in the fridge for me to eat, and a note to take my time to find the right job. I smiled looking at the note, and I quickly ate before heading out as well. 

I went to the bank, and withdrew all of my savings in cash. My plan was to utilize my Telepathy to make money. Yes, I was going to go to a casino. With magic being widespread, there were a lot of countermeasures to ensure someone didn't use magic to cheat.

But I didn't use magic. It was undetectable with conventional methods, and it might even be completely undetectable in this world. 

The only risk, was that my skill only gave me a vague sense of what someone was trying to do, so I would still have to use my own judgement in making the right call. I made my way to the casino, and signed up for a poker game. I sat in the lounge waiting for my name to be called, and when it finally was I made my way to the table where I would be playing. 

When I got there I received a few looks of disdain for the clothes I was wearing, since I knew I wasn't wearing nice clothes like the others, I ignored it. They seemed to have already wrote me off in their minds.

'I'll take all your money... Fuckers.'

I bought my chips, and began to play.

****

"This... this is impossible! He has to be cheating! Check him again!"

"Sir... We've been constantly monitoring him, and he hasn't used any mana. Not even subconsciously. He isn't cheating."

I was now sitting with a large pile of chips, and our table had been crowded with spectators for a while. I was able to play normally, and use my skill to tell when someone was bluffing me, allowing me to avoid big losses and make some really big wins here and there. 

I was looking at one of the men sitting at the table, who was fuming and shouting at the workers that there was no way I wasn't cheating, so I decided to speak up for the first time.

"You know, I actually don't have any mana in my body."

At this everyone, even the spectators became surprised.

"No, it's true. You can look it up, Arthur Creed, the only manaless person in the world... I guess this is just my luck balancing out?"

With that there weren't anymore arguments. Everyone had taken a moment to look me up, and found that it was true. There were articles about me having zero mana. After that, I noticed no one wanted to play against me anymore, so I took my chips and cashed out.

I knew I had made a lot, but I didn't know how much exactly. Then the reality of it hit me when the cashier told me the full amount. 

"You cashed out a total of... $86,000... W-Would you like that in cash or do you want a check?"

I was stunned for a moment, after hearing the amount, but I quickly answered.

"Check please..."

I then waited in stunned silence as I thought about the amount of money I just made in a few hours.

My skill was incredible, but I knew this was not a reliable way to make money. Eventually my name would get out there, and no one would play me anymore. Instead I needed to focus on increasing my combat strength, and increasing my level to unlock new skills.

I was not looking to become rich... I wanted to become strong. This world was one where I could do that.

But first I needed to take care of my family. I began to look at some cheap equipment for attacking dungeons, while I waited for the casino to finish the paperwork needed to give me my check. After about twenty minutes, and a lot of signatures, I finally got my check and left the casino.

I wasn't worried about being robbed, since the check couldn't be cashed without the identity of a person being checked, and no one could emulate another person's mana signature. There was also the fact that in my particular case, I had zero mana. This was even easier to check as a regular crystal ball, used to measure mana reserves, could determine if someone had zero mana.

I quickly made my way to the bank, and immediately put my money into my savings account. When the teller saw the amount I was cashing in, they were stunned, but they stayed professional. A manager had to come out to approve the check, but the process was quickly. Afterwards, they then upgraded my Bronze bank card to a Silver one.

This simply let me get access to preferential treatment at certain places, and the higher tier my bank card, the more benefits I received. I smiled and happily took the card. I then headed home for the day, and began to look into different things. First, I messaged someone about buying a used car for $5,000. We agreed on meeting tomorrow to do the trade, and just like that we had a family car.

I would be the primary user, since I would need to go long distances to get to different dungeons, but after I started making money from the dungeons I could buy another car.

Dungeons were extremely lucrative, since you could get many different things for clearing dungeons. While EXP was the main goal, monsters also dropped mana cores and the bosses would drop things like enchanted gear.

I then made a dinner reservation at a nearby restaurant and then went home while looking for parties looking for a porter for a dungeon. Porters were simply people who carried non combat supplies, and dismantled corpses for mana cores. I decided to do this to get some experience in dungeons, so I knew what to expect in the future. I would observe and learn what I could, and when I felt comfortable I would sign up for a dungeon as a main party member.

I found a party after a few hours, comprised of some veterans around the level 15 mark, and they thankfully accepted my application. We were going to a nearby goblin dungeon, for people from level 10-20 to attack. I wasn't worried about combat, since I was not going to be fighting, but it would be interesting to see a higher leveled dungeon.

I hoped to find some people around my level, and form a party in the future, but for now I would have to join others. After I had finished everything, I cleaned the apartment while waiting for my family to come home. It was a couple more hours, and then the door opened.

My mother came in slowly, taking off her shoes and setting her bag down. She made her way into the living room, where I was sitting quietly waiting at the dinner table.

"Oh, Arthur, have you been home all day?"

"No, I went out earlier... I also.. Have something to show you."

I then took out my checking book, and slid it over to my mother. She took off her coat, and sat down worried at the table. She slowly looked at me, then back at the checking book, before finally picking it up.

Then she gasped, and covered her mouth with her hand.

"Where did you get all this money, Arthur? You didn't steal it did you?"

I smiled and got up from my seat. I hugged my mom from the back, and explained that I made the money with my talent. While it was a lot of money, I wouldn't be able to do it all the time, and that I planned to go into the dungeon to develop my strength while making more money.

I felt my mother's tears trickle down her face and onto my arms, but I never pulled away. I just hugged my mom tighter and I let her know her son was here to take care of her. I then told her about dinner, and she went off to get ready.

It was while she was in the shower, that my brother came home. He entered, and was about to simply walk past me without saying anything before I stopped him.

"What do you want?"

I handed him the checking book and waited for his reaction.

It was similar to my mom's, except he didn't cry.

"How did you make this money? You don't have any mana what could you possibly offer-"

"Keep talking like that and you'll get none of it."

At this he shut his mouth, but he still had a look on his face. I stood up, and stood in front of him. I was 6 foot tall, and while I wasn't muscular, I was lean. I towered over my younger brother, and when he realized I was not looking at him kindly, he started to back away a little.

"I am making money now. I am providing for the family. I don't give a fuck what you say about me, but if you make our mom cry again, I'll cut you off entirely. You understand?"

I glared directly into his eyes, and he meekly looked back at me before breaking eye contact. He held his head down, and awkwardly held his arm with his other arm.

"I'm sorry... I... I won't make mom cry anymore.."

I took a moment to let what he said sink in, before I pulled him in for a hug.

"I'm sorry I haven't been able to provide for you or mom... But that's different now... This weekend we'll buy you some new clothes for school, and a phone. How does that sound?"

At this his eyes lit up and he looked up at me again.

"Are you being for real? You're not lying right? I get a phone? Like a smart phone and not like a flip right?"

I laughed and patted his shoulder before turning around.

"Yes, a smartphone. Also, go get dressed we are going out to dinner at that restaurant nearby where you get to grill your own meat."

Excited, he ran off to his room and I began to hear rustling in there as he got changed as quick as he could.

I shook my head and laughed. I was alone in the living room, but I just quietly listened to the sounds of my brother and mother getting ready. I felt like the house had some real energy for the first time in a long time.

****

That night I let my brother and mom eat as much as they wanted, while I happily grilled meat for them. It was the first time, in my memories of this world, that I saw them smile so much since my father passed away. If I accomplished nothing else in this world, I would still be proud. That kind of happiness, that lets someone forget their pain, was priceless.